BACKGROUND
Tinnitus has been shown to respond to modulations of cortical activity by high-frequency and low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS).
OBJECTIVE
To determine the tinnitus-attenuating effects of a 2-week daily regimen of rTMS, navigated to the maximum of tinnitus-related increase in regional cerebral blood flow.
… (More)

Recent data suggest that chronic tinnitus is a "phantom auditory perception" caused by maladaptive neuroplasticity and subsequent hyperactivity in an extended neuronal network including the primary auditory cortex, higher-order association areas, and parts of the limbic system. It was suggested that attenuation of this tinnitus-associated hyperactivity may… (More)

Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) are routinely used in audiological diagnostics. When the stimulus frequencies f1 and f2 are varied in small steps, distinct non-monotonicities (peaks and valleys) in DPOAE level versus frequency functions can be observed. This so-called DPOAE fine structure (FS) is supposed to be the result of physiological… (More)

Hearing loss from occupational and leisure noise numbers amongst the most frequent causes of an acquired sensorineural hearing loss. Here we present a review of up-to-date findings on the pathophysiology of acoustic injury to the inner ear, with special attention being paid to its molecular-biological and genetic aspects. Epidemiological aspects shall also… (More)

As more and more substances have been shown in preclinical studies to be capable of preventing damage to the inner ear from exposure to noise, ototoxic drugs, ischemia, infection, inflammation, mechanical trauma and other insults, it is becoming very important to develop feasible and safe methods for the targeted delivery of drugs to specific regions in the… (More)

CONCLUSION
According to the presented data, speech-in-noise intelligibility (SI) does not correlate with olivocochlear efferent activity - as measured by contralateral suppression (CS) of distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) in humans with normal auditory threshold.
OBJECTIVES
Literature data indicate a possible role of the medial… (More)

Intratympanic (IT) delivery of drugs to the ear is increasingly used for both clinical and research purposes. One limitation of IT delivery is that drugs are rapidly lost from the middle ear by a number of processes, so that prolonged delivery of drug is technically difficult. In the present study, the delivery characteristics of a poloxamer hydrogel… (More)

Tuning curves, spontaneous activity, and rate-intensity (RI) functions were obtained from units in the chick cochlear nerve. The characteristic frequency (CF) was determined from each tuning curve. The shape of each RI function was subjectively evaluated and assigned to one of four RI types. The breakpoint, discharge rate at the highest SPLs, and slopes of… (More)

HYPOTHESIS
Different methods of pure-tone audiometry analysis in sudden hearing loss studies show a lack of agreement with respect to outcome, and the choice of outcome measure influences sample size calculation.
BACKGROUND
There is an increasing number of clinical reports on the treatment of sudden hearing loss. For comparison of efficacy between… (More)

This case report describes the use of transcranial magnetic theta burst stimulation (TBS) in the treatment of incapacitating tinnitus accompanied by symptoms of severe depression. Tinnitus is known to be associated with hyperactivity and maladaptive cortical reorganization of the central auditory system. Combined with anxiety and depression, it can… (More)